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Special Operations #1
Code of Honor
- Catherine Mann is a Rita Award winner and three-time Rita Award finalist, who made her publishing debut in June 2002.
- She made her single title debut with Anything, Anywhere, Anytime (Silhouette Books, 3/04), which was chosen as a Romantic Times Top Pick.
- Catherine's intense writing style and military-theme stories have gained her a loyal readership in the Silhouette Intimate Moments line.
- She made her single title debut with Anything, Anywhere, Anytime (Silhouette Books, 3/04), which was chosen as a Romantic Times Top Pick.
- Catherine's intense writing style and military-theme stories have gained her a loyal readership in the Silhouette Intimate Moments line.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 26, 2005
8 people are currently reading
541 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Mann
569Ìýbooks1,144ÌýfollowersUSA Today bestseller Catherine Mann has written women's fiction, romance, and romantic suspense for Lake Union, Harlequin, HQN, Berkley, Tule, and Sourcebooks, with titles released in more than 30 countries. Catherine’s novels have won numerous awards, including a RITA Award, the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Bookseller’s Best Award.
A South Carolinian at heart, after years of moving around the country Catherine has settled back in her home state with her Harley-riding husband. Empty nesters, they have a blended family of nine children, nine grandchildren, two dogs, and three feral cats, who all provide endless inspiration for new novels. For more information, visit:
A South Carolinian at heart, after years of moving around the country Catherine has settled back in her home state with her Harley-riding husband. Empty nesters, they have a blended family of nine children, nine grandchildren, two dogs, and three feral cats, who all provide endless inspiration for new novels. For more information, visit:
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 6, 2019
They share a grief for a man who died serving his country, but they might share a bit of something else that sizzles between them. A photo journalist and a special operations pilot caught up with a terrorist plot over the jungles of Central America from the pen of new to me author in an older series had me perked up and ready to read.
Code of Honor is the first book in a series about the US Air Force's Special Operations. It pulled together several elements and tropes making it a very complicated story. It has a strong military flavor written by someone who has lived the life and done her homework. The romance- or should I say main romance=- is between a best friend still grieving his pal and that man's off limits lover, Bridget, who has walked away from her edgy photo journalism to pack away feelings and everything content to just exist until suddenly she isn't and wants the man who has stood by her for the last two years. Joe has suffered from his bestfriend seeing Bridget first and having to suppress his own interest and then Cooper's death putting her further off limits since she is still not over him. Bridget wants a temporary friends with benies, but he knows she's not wired that way and he can't be when it comes to her, but the flared up sexual attraction is driving them both nuts right when they get intel into who sold Cooper and his Green Beret team out. If that wasn't complicated enough, Cooper isn't dead, but he chose to slip into the CIA rather than go back after the injury to his leg that permanently sidelined him from the team. He'd rather get revenge by fereting out the terrorists who got his team killed and scotching their latest horrendous plot through a Central American drug lord. His revenge plot gets complicated when the druglord's woman gets his attention and his best friend and former girlfriend are now on the scene.
As you can tell, this one had a lot going on. I was hooked as soon as I knew this one was going to be a more authentic military background and focus on the Air Force Spec Ops with Joe's flying and his crew. I did want to see him and Bridget work past their grief. I even liked seeing Cooper broken from his experiences of injury and captivity and then being embedded in the drug cartel for the CIA, but I was not looking forward to that moment when Bridget and Joe learned Cooper was alive or that Cooper was moving on with his attraction to another woman when he had unfinished business. I really liked all the main characters so didn't want to see them in that mess, but I also found the two stories that were converging hard to read because I kept getting jerked from one story to the other, but blessedly the fall out when the truth hit wasn't the angsty storm I was dreading. There was some lag time in the middle especially with Bridget and Joe's story line, but not terribly so. There was plenty of tension and sorting things out, but that was exactly when all the action this book was leading towards broke and turned this into a fantastic page turner.
The Cooper/Lena and the Joe/Bridget plots really did feel separate and I think I'd have liked it more if they ended up being two different books since there was definitely enough there for that to happen.
So, my first encounter with this author's books has me kicking myself that I waited so long to try them. This one was even better than I anticipated and roused my interest in military romantic suspense once again. Those who enjoy that genre should definitely pick up this book/series.
Code of Honor is the first book in a series about the US Air Force's Special Operations. It pulled together several elements and tropes making it a very complicated story. It has a strong military flavor written by someone who has lived the life and done her homework. The romance- or should I say main romance=- is between a best friend still grieving his pal and that man's off limits lover, Bridget, who has walked away from her edgy photo journalism to pack away feelings and everything content to just exist until suddenly she isn't and wants the man who has stood by her for the last two years. Joe has suffered from his bestfriend seeing Bridget first and having to suppress his own interest and then Cooper's death putting her further off limits since she is still not over him. Bridget wants a temporary friends with benies, but he knows she's not wired that way and he can't be when it comes to her, but the flared up sexual attraction is driving them both nuts right when they get intel into who sold Cooper and his Green Beret team out. If that wasn't complicated enough, Cooper isn't dead, but he chose to slip into the CIA rather than go back after the injury to his leg that permanently sidelined him from the team. He'd rather get revenge by fereting out the terrorists who got his team killed and scotching their latest horrendous plot through a Central American drug lord. His revenge plot gets complicated when the druglord's woman gets his attention and his best friend and former girlfriend are now on the scene.
As you can tell, this one had a lot going on. I was hooked as soon as I knew this one was going to be a more authentic military background and focus on the Air Force Spec Ops with Joe's flying and his crew. I did want to see him and Bridget work past their grief. I even liked seeing Cooper broken from his experiences of injury and captivity and then being embedded in the drug cartel for the CIA, but I was not looking forward to that moment when Bridget and Joe learned Cooper was alive or that Cooper was moving on with his attraction to another woman when he had unfinished business. I really liked all the main characters so didn't want to see them in that mess, but I also found the two stories that were converging hard to read because I kept getting jerked from one story to the other, but blessedly the fall out when the truth hit wasn't the angsty storm I was dreading. There was some lag time in the middle especially with Bridget and Joe's story line, but not terribly so. There was plenty of tension and sorting things out, but that was exactly when all the action this book was leading towards broke and turned this into a fantastic page turner.
The Cooper/Lena and the Joe/Bridget plots really did feel separate and I think I'd have liked it more if they ended up being two different books since there was definitely enough there for that to happen.
So, my first encounter with this author's books has me kicking myself that I waited so long to try them. This one was even better than I anticipated and roused my interest in military romantic suspense once again. Those who enjoy that genre should definitely pick up this book/series.
August 5, 2016
I feel bad that this is rated so highly and I'm such a downer and give it only 2 stars. But I don't see the appeal in it. It didn't work for me. It should have worked. It has the elements I love in my Romantic Suspense but for whatever reason it didn't.
April 10, 2019
Amazing start to a great series!
February 18, 2017
Photojournalist Brigid Wheeler just happened to be on assignment in Iraq with Air Force pilot Captain Joe “Face� Greco when Green Beret Cooper Scott and his squad are ambushed and slaughtered by the enemy. As Brigid heard the battle and saw the squad overrun from the plane, she lost her boyfriend and Joe lost his best friend. Joe tried but couldn't reach the squad in time to save them.
Two years later, photographer Brigid lives and works near best friend Joe's base assignment. The pair start to navigate awkward and choppy waters taking them past Cooper as their core and advance to their own budding emotional and sexual attraction. Brigid's invited to photograph a goodwill mission with Joe's team assigned to covert recon sortie to plug the leak that killed Cooper and his team.
Lena Banuelos, mistress to Alessandro, Cartina's powerful but unstable drug kingpin wants out of the world she's fumbled into but can't trust anyone to help her until she catches the eye of Alessandro's newly promoted and irreverent employee. Alessandro plans to use the fanfare of the goodwill mission to rain misery and death on the US but is unsure if Lena has betrayed him with his new sales director.
In-country Brigid and Joe haltingly find new ground while Lena and Alessandro's sales director, Mr. Cooper are pushed together. The mysterious Mr. Cooper is a CIA agent on assignment to infiltrate Alessandro's inner circle. Diplomacy and covert are out as perilous danger takes center stage for both newly formed couples with traitors and betrayals nestled within layers of despicable characters.
The action, suspense and romance elements aged better than the time marking cutting edge technology and topical quips in this responsibility to romance read. For this reader's taste the storyline had obvious moments making it good not great. Leads, Joe and Brigid were serviceable but needed more chemistry. Overall a fairly good read with an innocence today's sophisticated reader might not buy.
Rating:3.75stars
Two years later, photographer Brigid lives and works near best friend Joe's base assignment. The pair start to navigate awkward and choppy waters taking them past Cooper as their core and advance to their own budding emotional and sexual attraction. Brigid's invited to photograph a goodwill mission with Joe's team assigned to covert recon sortie to plug the leak that killed Cooper and his team.
Lena Banuelos, mistress to Alessandro, Cartina's powerful but unstable drug kingpin wants out of the world she's fumbled into but can't trust anyone to help her until she catches the eye of Alessandro's newly promoted and irreverent employee. Alessandro plans to use the fanfare of the goodwill mission to rain misery and death on the US but is unsure if Lena has betrayed him with his new sales director.
In-country Brigid and Joe haltingly find new ground while Lena and Alessandro's sales director, Mr. Cooper are pushed together. The mysterious Mr. Cooper is a CIA agent on assignment to infiltrate Alessandro's inner circle. Diplomacy and covert are out as perilous danger takes center stage for both newly formed couples with traitors and betrayals nestled within layers of despicable characters.
The action, suspense and romance elements aged better than the time marking cutting edge technology and topical quips in this responsibility to romance read. For this reader's taste the storyline had obvious moments making it good not great. Leads, Joe and Brigid were serviceable but needed more chemistry. Overall a fairly good read with an innocence today's sophisticated reader might not buy.
Rating:3.75stars
August 25, 2017
solid 3 stars
I ripped through Catherine Mann's Elite Force and Dark Ops series so I was looking forward to starting the Special Operations series but this book really dragged for me and I'm not sure why. Have checked that impeccable source Wikipedia and it seems that Special Operations pre-dates the other two series and was written at around the same time as her Wingman Warriors series which I also found a bit meh.
Now I have read this in several chunks, several weeks apart so I apologise for the vagueness of some points of plot.
The outline story is good. Brigid is a photojournalist and Joe is a pilot (can't recall if he was the Green Beret). Brigid and Joe have known each other for two and a half years. Brigid was seeing Joe's best friend when he was killed in a mission gone wrong. Brigid and Joe have strong feelings for each other, have done since the day they met, but have hidden those feelings from each other.
Following her boyfriend's death Brigid has ceased being a photojournalist, until her editor tempts her back with a story too good to miss � accompanying the Spec Ops team on a mission to Cartenia on a goodwill journey which is covering up an attempt to gain evidence on the terrorist responsible for her boyfriend's death. And of course, because the romance wouldn't work otherwise, Joe is also on the mission!
Alessandro is a drug manufacturer and distributor in Cartenia in league with the terrorists and party to their plot to send cocaine laced with Anthrax to the USA. His mistress, Lena, is desperately unhappy and terrified of him but she cannot escape Cartenia. To show that he is a BAD MAN Alessandro takes cocaine and forces Lena to have sex (and do things so unspeakable that they are only referred to obliquely). Alessandro has recently taken on a new American in his organisation � Cooper. Cooper and Lena are drawn to each other even though he can't afford the distraction and she has her son to worry about (as well as the psychotic, drug-taking, violent Alessandro). Also, can't remember is his name Alessandro Arragon or does he change name half way through?
Anyway, there are traitors aplenty, Alessandro loses the plot there's a gloriously OTT kidnapping and yet it was all a bit of a struggle. I think it was because, like most of these novels, the romance required the two protagonists to believe things about each other (she still loves her old boyfriend, he doesn't feel that way about her) that have no basis in reality.
Also, Ms Mann's later books are darker and more gritty � the Wingman Warriors and this book seem a bit PG-rated.
I'm already dubious about whether to read books 2 and 3 or just DNF them. or is it DNBTS (did not bother to start)?
I ripped through Catherine Mann's Elite Force and Dark Ops series so I was looking forward to starting the Special Operations series but this book really dragged for me and I'm not sure why. Have checked that impeccable source Wikipedia and it seems that Special Operations pre-dates the other two series and was written at around the same time as her Wingman Warriors series which I also found a bit meh.
Now I have read this in several chunks, several weeks apart so I apologise for the vagueness of some points of plot.
The outline story is good. Brigid is a photojournalist and Joe is a pilot (can't recall if he was the Green Beret). Brigid and Joe have known each other for two and a half years. Brigid was seeing Joe's best friend when he was killed in a mission gone wrong. Brigid and Joe have strong feelings for each other, have done since the day they met, but have hidden those feelings from each other.
Following her boyfriend's death Brigid has ceased being a photojournalist, until her editor tempts her back with a story too good to miss � accompanying the Spec Ops team on a mission to Cartenia on a goodwill journey which is covering up an attempt to gain evidence on the terrorist responsible for her boyfriend's death. And of course, because the romance wouldn't work otherwise, Joe is also on the mission!
Alessandro is a drug manufacturer and distributor in Cartenia in league with the terrorists and party to their plot to send cocaine laced with Anthrax to the USA. His mistress, Lena, is desperately unhappy and terrified of him but she cannot escape Cartenia. To show that he is a BAD MAN Alessandro takes cocaine and forces Lena to have sex (and do things so unspeakable that they are only referred to obliquely). Alessandro has recently taken on a new American in his organisation � Cooper. Cooper and Lena are drawn to each other even though he can't afford the distraction and she has her son to worry about (as well as the psychotic, drug-taking, violent Alessandro). Also, can't remember is his name Alessandro Arragon or does he change name half way through?
Anyway, there are traitors aplenty, Alessandro loses the plot there's a gloriously OTT kidnapping and yet it was all a bit of a struggle. I think it was because, like most of these novels, the romance required the two protagonists to believe things about each other (she still loves her old boyfriend, he doesn't feel that way about her) that have no basis in reality.
Also, Ms Mann's later books are darker and more gritty � the Wingman Warriors and this book seem a bit PG-rated.
I'm already dubious about whether to read books 2 and 3 or just DNF them. or is it DNBTS (did not bother to start)?
January 20, 2012
I'm not quite halfway through and wish I could forgo all my household duties and just read! lol Great story.. Ms. Mann has such a way of wording things that you feel like a part of the story...or the 'fly on the wall' :) Action, Adventure and , of course, Romance! I'm going to be up all night!! (Last night our power went out...or I would have read it all then!! :)
Finished now- LOVED this...fast moving action...romance...always something going on...never a time to get bored...which stinks if you want to get some housework done! lol
Finished now- LOVED this...fast moving action...romance...always something going on...never a time to get bored...which stinks if you want to get some housework done! lol
June 6, 2013
This was a pretty decent book. I had one major issue and that was the relationship between Cooper and Lena. In my humble opinion it seemed a little rushed and not entirely believable. Now that I think about it, I had a little trouble with how quickly Brigid went from wanting a sex buddy to wanting Joe permanently, but that was more believable at least. There were some vague or unfinished ideas regarding the bad guy, but it didn't kill or severely derail the story. Overall, I liked this book.
January 5, 2009
I actually liked this book. Joe is the man you can depend on. Cooper is to in his own ways....but not for Briggid. Good book. I like reading books like this that actually have real information in it. I then go and search the internet to see what was true. Learn something new even if they book is fiction!
November 29, 2009
First read Defender by this Author and preferred it to this one but
overall this book is full of dynamite explosive action, literally!
Love these forces heros books and you are certainly dragged into all
the nuances of covet operations which have you biting your fingernails
all the way. Very good book
overall this book is full of dynamite explosive action, literally!
Love these forces heros books and you are certainly dragged into all
the nuances of covet operations which have you biting your fingernails
all the way. Very good book
October 19, 2013
I did not realize how old this book was when I bought it. I busted out laughing when I read PalmPilot because I thought it was a joke. I read the Elite Forces series and decided to move on to this one. This book was just ok until Cooper came back to life. His and Lena's story was more interesting then Brigid and Joes in my opinion. That's what helped me to love this book.
January 12, 2009
This was a good, suspenseful romance. I loved the characters and subplot. The writing, however, was a bit awkward in places with a few instances of repetitive phrasing. Overall, a writer I would definitely read again!
April 17, 2011
Entertaining but not something that I need to remember.
December 21, 2012
Enjoyed very much. Lots of action plus happy ending.
June 12, 2013
Great story line about special ops and falling in love.
January 7, 2014
A quick easy read with an enjoyable storyline and likeable characters
October 28, 2010
It was good, but not as good as others.
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